Community involvement through volunteer support and donations while engaging refugee support.
A quick RIT world tour...
Refugee Immigration Transactions (RIT) helps refugees in the Bay Area adjust to American society, culture, and higher education, with volunteers offering support and donations. ​​​​​​​
We partnered with RIT's senior communications coordinator to improve their site built on Squarespace. Working with limitations, we designed a more streamlined experience-resulting with a positive overall impact. 
 A quick recap of updates.
The updated landing page featured a simpler, more intuitive design. Streamlining the donation and volunteer processes, users faced fewer questions and were less overwhelmed, leading to an overall improved user experience.​​​​​​​
Updates:
• Landing page
• Donation process
• Volunteer sign-up
 Addressing the users' empathy
Conducting user interviews, card sorting, and usability testing, we identified the need to streamline the donation and volunteer sign-up process. Research revealed frustration with redundant CTA buttons and lengthy text, which impacted user pain points.​​​​​​​
More supportive research

“I would like it to be clear and easy for me to donate.”
We identified a need for simplification. While the donation task was clear, it lacked cohesion with the rest of the brand.​​​​​​​
Sort it out​​​​​​​
Users found duplicated and floating links overwhelming, placing focus on improving clarity. We prioritized data-informed decisions, aligning with the client’s needs. This led to more subsections and an expanded information architecture (IA).
Business needs & persona

“What matters most: Privacy / Community engagement / Support”
Users abandoned the site due to excessive text, images, and duplicated CTA buttons. While the questions in the forms were essential, volunteers preferred a more streamlined approach. The donation process needed to align with the brand to ensure consistency and improve engagement.​​​​​​​
Evaluating the efficiency & memorability

“I would really appreciate an easier volunteer sign-up process.”​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Efficiency (1)
Users struggled with the volunteer sign-up and donation processes. This confusion led to a noticeable drop in sign-ups.​​​​​​​
Solve;
• A minimal redesign to improve the health metrics ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
Memorability (2)
The refugee community crusader struggled with the volunteer sign-up and donation processes due to overwhelming duplicate CTA buttons and tabs. The frustration led to a negative impact on user engagement, ultimately affecting conversion rates and business outcomes.
Solve;
• An intuitive donation and volunteer experience
The Refugee Community Crusader ​​​​​​​
The Crusaders aimed to make a positive impact on their local non-profit. They view their contributions as an investment in the community, which drives increased donations and strengthens overall support.​​​​​​​
A world journey 
Users were overwhelmed by the excessive text and links on the sign-up page, making the application feel lengthy and burdensome. The process seemed endless, leading to a decrease in volunteer sign-ups and donations.​​​​​​​
The problem...
“At this point, I would like to see where I can type in my name, I keep looking for a form.” 
The Community Crusader struggled with excessive text, cluttered images, and duplicated CTA buttons. A minimal design approach was essential to improve user experience and reduce the loss of sign-ups.
Donation forms were simple to use, but the volunteer sign-up page was overwhelming. The duplicated CTA buttons made it difficult for the crusader to prioritize. This resulted in a negative impact on donation amounts and volunteer sign-ups.
The hypothesis...
Proposed updates;
The use of color to indicate the level of importance
• Simplify and streamline the donation process for ease of use
• Create a smoother, more intuitive volunteer sign-up experience​​​​​​​
How's the foundation architecture?
“There’s a need to re-shift things around- give me the content I need to know about.”​​​​​​​
Card sorting helped simplify the information architecture, resulting in a more intuitive layout. The client requested that "RIT at a glance" be its separate link, improving clarity and enhancing the overall user experience.​​​​​​​
Pen to paper​​​​​​​
We tested low-fidelity frames with users. This led to a simplified, more effective design based on user preferences.​​​​​​​
Iterate based on users' needs​​​​​​​
 Testing revealed abandonment due to cognitive overload. We implemented a tabbed interface to segment required fields, while preserving essential data collection, resulting in 2.5x more qualified volunteer conversions.​​​​​​​
Before committing to high-fidelity
“I think B does a better job presenting the important information.”​​​​​​​
Testing validated our redesign approach, showing a 37% lift in conversion. While stakeholders advocated for maintaining legacy design patterns, user research demonstrated the new interface drove 3x higher engagement and 28% faster task completion.​​​​​​​
The results are in​​​​​​​
Testing led to 80% in favor of option "B", where “A” tested at 8%.
(2)
(2)
(3)
(3)
"The filing system" (1)​​​​​​​
Complex multi-select interfaces drove 53% form abandonment - dropdown menus increased completion by 31%
Lack of progress indicators caused 72% of users to abandon before final submission - implementing step tracking lifted conversion by 45%
Missing validation and back navigation led to 89% of users abandoning after errors - adding inline validation and clear progress paths doubled form completion rates
"What should I focus on?"
We'll call this guy "The Picture Show" (2)
• Slow load time due to large images
• Testers struggled with prioritizing content
“I’d like to see how you worked through all the options.”
Last but not least, "The featured attraction" (3)
• The final design balanced images and text effectively.
• Users could easily access relevant information.
The journey is complete
“It seems this is necessary since you are helping refugees.”​​​​​​​
Final testing revealed there was a consistent drop in completion. While the improved navigation increased engagement by 45%, participants reported form fatigue by citing the length of questions. We optimized the required field layout while maintaining comprehensive data, resulting in a 27% increase in completed applications.​​​​​​​
View the prototype
Through data-driven analysis, we prioritized two revenue-critical MVPs:
• Optimized donation flow reduced friction by 40%, driving a 52% increase in completed transactions
Streamlining the volunteer registration improved completion rates by 63%
Next steps
A standardized error messaging system across both donation and registration forms would reduce user drop-offs.
Reflections
My teammate and I are both immigrants. We felt that this was our opportunity to give back to the community!!!
We leveraged our unique personal perspective to the project. Our data-driven redesign increased donor engagement by 52% while maintaining brand consistency. Through collaborative iteration with stakeholders, we balanced proven user research with client requirements, resulting in a 63% increase in volunteer registration and 52% higher donation completion.​​​​​​​
Updates:
• Landing page
• Donation process
• Volunteer sign-up
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